Villa Mercedes Biogas Plant

Villa Mercedes,
Argentina

Clean local energy from pigs & plants

The 30.000 pigs on Villa Mercedes producing 1,5 tons of excrement every day, combined with the
farm's sorghum and maize plant wastes will secure a clean local energy supply for years to come with Thermaflex' full-proof solution.

The bio-digesters process the decomposition of the mixture to produce the biogas, which fuels the internal combustion motor to generate 2.4 mWh. A highly efficient distribution could be secured with Flexalen, so that only 25% of the energy is used in the farm and the rest could be sold to a local electricity company. Because of this success, the biogas plant is being expanded and new barns are in construction. These will be used for breeding the pigs, and widening the local energy supply.

Goals

The local energy supplier could only produce 75 kWh, while demand reached 250 kWh. So an increased supply was critical. The production of heat from the cooling system could bring the water to 65°C. Additionally a system was implemented to allow water usage to clean the floors of the pigs as well as the transport sorghum and maize across the entire plant.

Results

1.400 meters of pipes surrounding the countryside of the plantations were connected

mostly done with the Flexalen twin pipe 63 mm and Flexalen 75 mm

With Flexalen the installers could install 900 meters in one day (twin pipe 450 meters), a significant reduction of the installation time

Additional Info

According to Ing. Javier Ramoska:

Flexalen
pre-insulated pipe system of Thermaflex has been chosen because of its low thermal
conductivity, its easy installation, its reliable welding technique, its great
strength and long lifetime.

Statistics

30000 pigs

eating and producing...

1,5 tons

of excrement a day. Used to produce...

2,4 MWh

of electricity. Of which...

75 %

is sold to the energy company

1400 m

of Flexalen 600 installed. Of which...

900 m

were installed in 1 day!

Duration

Contacts

Christian Engel
Business Development District Heating / Cooling
Sub.: Thermaflex International Holding
c.engel@thermaflex.com